Dota Auto Chess’s Custom Pass lets you vote to balance heroes – but only for 30 days

Good news, fans of Drodo Studio’s Dota 2-spinoff game Dota Auto Chess – right now you can grab a Custom Pass for $1, replete with goodies and bonuses to make your next round of strategic skirmishing a treat. The Custom Pass, revealed on the developer’s Twitter page, might be well worth that single dollar, but enjoy it while you can – it only lasts for 30 days after purchase.

The image in the promotional tweet says that the Custom Pass “activates premium content and supports creators”, offering a range of in-game perks. These include some cool golden effects for your damage projectiles, chat messages, and even a golden border for your avatar. The pack also includes some playing bonuses: a “Daily First Win” bonus, which gives you five bonus Candy both for your first top-three placement and first-place win.

As if that isn’t sweet enough, the pass gives players more of a voice in shaping the game. According to the tweet, players who have purchased it will get to vote for the special chess pieces, including both new pieces and those that need rebalancing.

Plus, on first purchase, you’ll get a Baby Roshan courier as your chess player.

DOTA AUTO CHESS Custom Game PassThis pass activates premium content in the DOTA AUTO CHESS custom game and supports the creators of this custom game.Owning a DOTA AUTO CHESS Custom Game Pass will unlock pic.twitter.com/4BRH4RiSaN

The game’s devs say on the Dota 2 site that purchasing the pass “supports the game and allows us to build content better, faster, more consistently”. With eight million players and counting, Dota Auto Chess is a pretty impressive feat for a fan-crafted project, both in its design and the size of its community. If you’re keen to jump in, check out our guide to getting started in Dota Auto Chess and get racking up those bonuses. Sweet!

It may be that we soon also hear of Dota 2 studio Valve’s own standalone chess game, which could be called ‘Dota Underlords‘, based on a trademark they recently filed. Whether it’ll be as huge as Drodo Studios’ version, though, is anyone’s guess.